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Laura E. McCully
by George J. Dance Canadian | ethnicity = | citizenship = British subject | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genre = poetry | subject = | movement = | notableworks = Mary Magdalene, and other poems, 1914 | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | website = | portaldisp = }} Laura Elizabeth McCully (March 17, 1886 - July 7, 1924) was a Canadian poet and a feminist writer.Sophia Sperdakos, "McCully, Laura Elizabeth," Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Volume 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. Web, Dec. 7, 2014 . Life Youth and education McCully was born in Toronto, the daughter of Helen (Fitzgibbon) and Samuel Edward McCully. As a teenager she began publishing poetry, and winning prizes, in the Young People's Corner of the Toronto Mail and Empire.John Garvin, "Laura E. McCully, Canadian Poets (Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, 1916), 412-422, Digital Library, University of Pennsylvania, UPenn.edu, Web, Feb. 18, 2012. She was educated at Deer Park Public School and Jarvis High School in Toronto, and then attended the University of Toronto, where she earned a B.A. in 1908 and an M.A. in 1909, writing her master's thesis on "A critical study of Milton’s theory of divorce,”. During her undergraduate years, McCully embraced feminist views. She joined the Canadian Women's Suffrage Association, and participated in the group's rallies, including one in Orillia, Ontario, in 1908. In January 1912 Maclean's published her article, "What Do Women Want?" (her answer being: "however important education and the emancipation of the body, no human being is complete without the legal status of a citizen"). In 1909 McCully received a scholarship to study Anglo-Saxon at Yale University, which the Toronto World called "an honor that university has rarely accorded to a woman." It is unclear why she cut her Yale studies short and returned to Toronto in 1910; the Dictionary of Canadian Biography speculates that a possible reason was the "court proceedings between her estranged parents," who had separated in the 1890s. Her first collection of poetry, Mary Magdalene, and other poems, was published in 1914. World War I During World War I McCully worked in a munitions plant, and in her spare time worked on translating Beowulf into modern English. But she believed that women, should play a more active role, bearing arms equally alongside men. In 1915 she joined the newly-formed Women's Home Guard in 1915, and wrote a letter published in the World encouraging other women to join: "“Let every available man join at least a defence organization, and let every able woman do likewise. We are not going to meet invasion as did the Belgian woman, should invasion come. We will meet it, gun in hand and self-protected, as our ancestresses met other savages."David Wencer, "Historicist: The Women's Home Guard," Torontoist. Web, Dec. 7, 2014. In August that year the Women's Home Guard opened a recruiting tent at City Hall in Toronto. McCully told the Toronto Star that 200 women signed up on the first day alone, bringing the Guard's membership to over 700. On August 30, though, McNully abruptly resigned as treasurer of the Guard, accusing its president, Jessie McNab, of having too much personal control of the group (which had grown to over 1,000 members). “In sending in my resignation, I merely wished to enter a protest at the present procedure of president," she told the Toronto Telegram in an interview. "Many of the members feel that its most vital questions should be decided by the entire membership". McCully stated her intention to remain involved as a recruiting sergeant, expressed dedication to the cause and pride in what the organization had achieved, and stressed that "my action, as I have said, in resigning as treasurer, was simply a protest against Kaiser-like methods under the British flag." McNab reportedly responded by barring McNully from the group. After this, and further conflict between McNab and the Guard (which ended up taking her to court), "the goodwill of the Toronto press began to evaporate. Whereas earlier articles had been supportive of the Women’s Home Guard, editorials began appearing which criticized and mocked the group." McNully responded with an April, 1916, Maclean's article called "The Woman Soldier: A by-product of the war", which stressed the necessity of fully enrolling women in all levels of the war effort. Later life After her involvement with the Guard, McNully reportedly "fell on hard economic times, which were compounded by mental and physical health issues." "Diabetes and mental illness diagnosed as dementia praecox resulted in several hospital admissions between 1917 and 1923, a suicide attempt in 1917, and a descent into poverty." She became convinced that some were spreading false rumours that she was pregnant; that others were trying to take credit for her poetry; and that she was being forced into prostitution. She was unable to find a publisher for her 2nd collection of poems, The Bird of Dawn, which she published privately in 1919. Nor does her translation of Beowulf appear to have survived. She was comitted to hospital for the last time in March 1923, and died there in 1924 of complications from diabetes. Writing James L. Hughes: "Miss McCully's poetry is enriched by classical illustrations, and expressed in forceful and melodious language. Her imagination relates us to the universe and to humanity. Wordsworth found new lessons in the fields and woods, and taught them; Lanier made trees, flowers and clouds our intimate friends; when we read Miss McCully's nature poems we are not conscious of the moralizing of the poet, we are in the glens ourselves looking at the afterglow, with the purity, the glory, the growth spirit and the transforming beauty of nature flowing into our lives. In a few flaming lines her stories reveal the love, the despair, and the ultimately triumphant faith of humanity. With tender pathos she unveils the evils of social and industrial conditions, and in clear tones arouses each soul, and makes it conscious of the splendour of the better conditions ahead, and thrills it with the determination to achieve for justice, freedom, and truth." Recognition McNully was mourned in the Toronto press as "one of the most brilliant of Toronto University graduates," "a young poet of remarkable ability," and "one of Toronto’s most enthusiastic suffrage workers when it was an unfashionable thing." The Toronto Globe was particularly effusive, calling her "a vivid poetic personality,” and writing that "she left a memory that will be treasured for her versatile and sensitive mind, her broad and tender sympathies." Publications Poetry *''Mary Magdalene and other poems.'' Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1914. *''Canadian Poets XXX'' (pamphlet). Toronto: York Publishing, 1916, *''Bird of dawn, and other lyrics. Toronto: privately published, 1919. ''Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Laura McCully, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Dec. 7, 2014. See also *List of Canadian poets References Notes External links ;Poems *Laura E. McCully at Poetry Nook: "Canoe Song at Twilight," "The Troubadour's Lyre" *Laura E. McCully in Canadian Poets: 5 poems ;Books *Laura E. McCully at Amazon.com ;About *Laura Elizabeth at Canada's Early Women Writers *McCully, Laura Elizabeth in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. *The Women's Home Guard at the Toronto Historicist Category:1886 births Category:1924 deaths Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:Canadian poets Category:Canadian women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Canadian feminists Category:Poets hospitalized for mental illness Category:Poets who died in poverty